Saturday, August 22, 2015

In prime time television, computer attacks are heralded by blinking red lights and audible alarms. Then there’s some clumsily written dialogue about breached firewalls, and the scene cuts to someone typing on a keyboard in a dark room where the only light comes from the glow of a computer screen. Eventually, the audience discovers this brilliant, evil hacker single-handedly compromised the main frame using a zero-day attack. In one day. While wearing a hoodie. Hackers always wear hoodies.

I’m here to save you from this trope.

Let’s start with the task of detecting computer attacks. The truth is any computer connected to the Internet is being attacked in small ways all the time. Despite the best efforts of everyone involved, legitimate ad networks host malicious ads, good websites end up hosting bad code, emails with evil attachments still make it through spam filters, and various global bad actors are scanning for weaknesses all the time. This is the first reason it is ridiculous when a computer attack triggers blinking red lights. If that were actually true, the blinking red lights would be on all the time.

The second reason it is ridiculous is that determining whether an attack represents a small annoyance or full-scale emergency requires a human analyst of some sort. The real story starts this way: someone looks at a screen and says ‘hey, that looks odd.’ Then they do some work. Then they do some more work. Then they talk to someone else. Then maybe, if their suspicions pan out, the news spreads up through various layers of management until someone decides what to do about the intrusion. If you’re lucky. In some cases, if it’s not costing the business too much money, they throw up their hands and do nothing. Comforting, isn’t it?

Okay, now about firewalls. I could write an entire blog post on how to correctly use the term firewall in fiction. In fact, I have. So let’s not rehash that. The real problem here is that most attacks, even the big ones that lead to massive data breaches, start with pedestrian tactics. The Target breach started with a malicious email. The criminals used that email to get someone to install a program that allowed them to get someone’s username and password. That username and password gave them access to an internal system on Target’s network. That was then used as a jumping off point for infecting the registers. Firewalls were never part of the equation.

And the criminals didn’t even have to write the code that infected the registers. The lone hacker single-handedly taking down a large network is a rare occurrence. And by rare, I mean vanishingly rare. The reality is that there’s a thriving black market for cybercriminals. Do you want to buy time on computers that someone else has already taken over for you? You can do that. Do you want to buy an exploit kit that will automate infecting large numbers of computers? You can do that too. Last year, the going price for the code that will mutate your evil program so it’s undetectable by 90% of anti-virus programs was two hundred dollars.

Okay. Now we can talk about zero-day attacks. They’re one of the coolest things in my field. A zero-day attack is an attack that has no available patch. That means your machine will be vulnerable to it, no matter what you do. Super scary, right? Sounds great for fiction. I hate to be the one to tell you this… but zero-day attacks are not the first choice for a criminal or even a spy agency. What’s really scary is that many computers, even at government agencies, can be compromised without resorting to fancy zero-day attacks. Patching reliably, on a large scale, is difficult. Most organizations fail. Your antagonist probably doesn’t need a zero-day attack to succeed, and wouldn’t try it first.

Why not? Zero-day attacks are powerful because they’re secret. The more they’re used, the less secret they are. Eventually, someone submits a sample to an anti-virus company. Or the breach is discovered and the email attachment gets analyzed, and then boom, your fancy zero-day is no longer your ace-in-the-hole. Zero-day attacks also raise the profile of an attacker. Sophisticated criminals don’t want to show their hand if they don’t have to. Better to use a common weapon, so their victims aren’t alerted to their presence. Zero-day attacks are typically reserved for high value targets when other attacks won’t work.

We should also talk about timing. Most attacks worthy of a novel take time. The target is studied. Scanned. Researched. And then, when the attacker has determined the best approach, compromised.

As for hoodies? Well, I can’t really fight that one. Computer geeks of all stripes tend to own hoodies. Course, most non-computer geeks do too. You can keep the hoodie.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

When I upgraded to the iPhone 6 and iOS 8, one of my favorite playlists disappeared. I follow a couple pod casts that release songs of the day. They're a great way to discover new artists, like Nellie Mckay or Felix Da Housecat.

But when I got my new phone, my smart playlist with all my favorite songs disappeared. The playlist worked in iTunes just fine, and was set to sync, but never appeared.

It took me half an hour to discover two neat things. First, files of type 'podcast' won't appear on playlists on the iPhone. And second, empty playlists don't appear at all.

Friday, January 9, 2015

I bought you on a whim. $80 for a nice winter coat just seemed like a good deal. But you weren't simply just a warm coat. You taught me what a coat should be.

In bitter cold, your two layers kept me warm while I snowshoed across lakes. On warmer days, when I just needed shelter from the wind, the zippers in the armpits let me walk steep trails without overheating. When I was whitewashed sledding, your snow skirt kept the snow from going down my pants. Enjoying the campfire after a long day of canoeing was so much better with you there to keep off the chill.

That's why I fought for you. When your front zipper broke, I used the snaps instead. When the snaps fell off, I replaced them myself. When the seams by the pockets became undone, I stitched them together myself.

But you've probably noticed you haven't moved much lately. You may have even noticed I've been going out in another coat. Sadly, it's time for us to part. You've grown too ragged and too stained. There are too many broken seams to fix. Frankly, people are beginning to mistake me for homeless if I carry too many plastic bags.

But I will always remember the snowy woods we explored together, the mountains we climbed, the oceans we crossed, and the lakes we paddled.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

This is a much belated thank-you for your book Sounds Like Crazy, and what it taught me about point of view in fiction.

Early on, we learn about pronouns and what that means for point of view. Later, if you're a writer, you debate the relative advantages/disadvantages of first person vs third person vs omniscent, etc.

Slightly more advanced presentations will focus on common mistakes, like violating point of view by describing something outside the narrator's awareness. (e.g. "She didn't notice the man with the knife creeping up behind her.")

But what I haven't heard many people talk about, and what I think your book so aptly demonstrates, is that point of view is also about agency. That how you describe a scene can put the narrator in control of their body, or make them distant from their own actions. Distance is generally a bad thing if you want your reader to be in your narrator's skin.

Except when the main character struggles with multiple personality disorder. Holly often finds herself inside her own body, but unable to control it. As I read the book, I noticed how differently Holly's actions are described when she's in control of her body vs. when her other personalities have taken over.

To clarify the point, let's look at an obvious example of how to show someone else is in control:She sashayed my body to the counter, retrieved the menu, and sauntered back.

A little further in the chapter, we see how this technique translates when control shifts mid-paragraph:She ceded control [of my body]. A marker that something has changed.My knees buckled. Clearly shows she is not in control of this action.I dove forward to catch my body just before it went down. We know Holly is in control again because of the "I dove". When I felt the ground under my feet, I bolted through the kitchen toward the back exit. More language to demonstrate that Holly is in control with "I felt" and "I dove"

And another example, just to drive the point home:My hand reached for the plate. The woman grabbed my wrist.
Note how both of these sentences show the narrator observing the actions of someone else, though in the first sentence it's her own body she's describing.

There are other times when you might want distance between the narrator and their actions, aside from Holly's unique situation. Like when a character doesn't understand why they are doing something, but they are doing it anyway. Or perhaps, if you're doing supernatural fiction, an otherworldly force has taken hold of the narrator.

Friday, August 3, 2012

I'm not the first person to pair sweet potato and swiss chard, but I didn't find this recipe anywhere else so I'm posting it. :) The wild rice stands up nicely to the swiss chard and the sauteed onions add a bit of sweetness that complements the sweet potato. In other words, it's yummy. You'll even forget it's healthy.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

It is during these times when you get to say 'I told you so' to all your friends who ask why you garden and can the harvest. Because while other pumpkin lovers were anxiously wondering if there would be canned pumpkin in the store this year, my cabinet still had some of last year's supply.

If you are lucky enough to have some pumpkin cubes around, here's a recipe I made up to use up the cubes that didn't make it into the canner.

Put all ingredients in crockpot. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours or high for 2-3 hours. When the pumpkin cubes are soft, it is ready. Take out the chicken breasts if you used them and shred them into smaller pieces on a separate place. Puree the pumpkin-bean mixture to a texture you like and then add the chicken pieces back in.

Add everything into the crockpot but the dried chili. Put the chili on top. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Remove the chili before serving. Or, for a fun game, mix in the chili and see who gets in their bowl at dinner.